Virtual reality transaction integration

ABSTRACT

A Virtual Reality (VR) system and method are provided that integrates transaction processing. A VR session customer transaction information is obtained and a transaction is concluded with the transaction information during the VR session.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/446,630 entitled: “Completing Payments within a Virtual Room,”filed on Jan. 16, 2017; the disclosure of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In Virtual Reality (VR) a VR room is provided for a VR session. Today,the VR room may include goods for purchase by customers but actuallyperforming the payment processing for the goods occurs before the VRsession or after the VR session and outside the VR room. This isinconvenient and cumbersome for both the retailer and the customerparticipating the VR session.

SUMMARY

In various embodiments, methods and a system for Virtual Reality (VR)transaction integration are presented.

According to an embodiment, a method for VR transaction integration isprovided. Specifically, and in an embodiment, transaction information isobtained to conclude a transaction of a customer during a VR session.The transaction is completed using the transaction information duringthe VR session.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system for VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a method for VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of another method VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of another system for VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system for VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment. The system is shown schematically ingreatly simplified form, with only those components relevant tounderstanding of one or more embodiments (represented herein) beingillustrated. The various components are illustrated and the arrangementof the components is presented for purposes of illustration only. It isto be noted that other arrangements with more or less components arepossible without departing from the VR transaction integrationtechniques presented herein and below.

Moreover, various components are illustrated as one or more softwaremodules, which reside in non-transitory storage and/or hardware memoryas executable instructions that when executed by one or more hardwareprocessors perform the processing discussed herein and below.

The techniques, methods, and systems presented herein and below for VRtransaction integration can be implemented in all, or some combinationof the components shown in different hardware computing devices havingone or more hardware processors.

The system includes: a VR computer 10, a VR interface, object files andrendering instructions 14, one or more service engineer VR-enableddevices 16, and out-of-band interface 18, and a payment gateway 20.

The VR computer 10 executes VR software, which establishes athree-dimensional (3D) virtual room or world within which one or more VRsessions (stories) can be processed.

In one example, the VR computer 10 is part of a cloud-based systemconnected to a network, which may include a global communicationsnetwork, also known as the Internet. VR computer 10 can include one ormore processors, memory, and program and data storage.

The VR interface connects to VR computer 10 and may include a variety ofVR-enabled devices 16 and input device that connects to the VR computer10 for a VR session/story over the network.

Any VR session may also be configured with relevant object files andrendering instructions 14 available and interfaced to the VR computer10. In an embodiment, the VR computer 10 receives as input to a VRsession Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) files and program instructions 14for creating virtual representations of a real-world objects such asproducts or goods offered for sale by retailers. The actual real-worldproducts or goods may be stored in warehouses and shipped to customersfollowing purchase transactions made within VR sessions and VR renderedrooms for those VR sessions.

A customer participants in a VR session through a rendered VA roomrepresenting a real-world of real-world depiction of a room. Within theroom a variety of products or goods are visible as rendered virtualobjects. Using the VR-enabled devices 16 operated by the customer andconnected through the VR interface 12, the customer can manipulate theobjects (goods or services) and place them in a cart depicted within theVR room. Typically, at this point in time the customer would have to logout of the VR room and access an ecommerce site through a computingdevice's browser to complete the purchase of the goods or services. Suchis not the case with the teachings presented herein.

A customer can get to the point in which the customer desires to pay forany purchased goods or services in a few of manners. For example, thecustomer may have been accessing an ecommerce site through a browserinterface during an out-of-band communication to the VR session andclicked an option on that browser site to create and migrate from theecommerce site to a VR session. As another example, the customer may beactively participating within a VR session when the customer identifiesgoods or products for purchase. In both scenarios, and unliketraditional approaches, the customer checks out and completes paymentfor any desired goods or products from within the VR session (a VRsession created after migrating from an out-of-band (again out-of-bandto the VR session) or an existing VR session from which the customeridentifies the goods or products and completes a checkout process). Thetypical payment processing occurs out-of-band to the VR session.

The payment processing is completed through a payment gateway 20 thatinterfaces with the VR computer 10 to bridge the VR session to aconventional payment gateway (such as credit cards, gift cards, banktransfers, virtual currency, and the like). An Application ProgrammingInterface (API) of the payment gateway 20 receives transaction andpayment details from the VR computer 10 through the VR session andtranslates that information into a format recognized by a conventionalecommerce payment gateway.

Before the payment processing can be completed, the customer mustpresent a payment method, such as a payment card, for payment of atransaction occurring in the VR session for the customer-identifiedgoods or products.

The manner in which the customer provides a payment card for completinga transaction during the VR session can occur in a variety of manners.For example, and in a first scenario, the customer may have transitionedfrom an ecommerce site during an out-of-band initial interaction of thecustomer during an ecommerce session and the ecommerce site has one ormore registered payment cards for the customer. In a second scenario,the customer may have transitioned from an ecommerce session where noprevious registered payment cards were available to the ecommerce site.In a third scenario, the customer may have conducted the entirepurchasing interaction within a VR session where a previously registeredpayment card for the customer was registered with the VR computer 10. Ina fourth scenario, the customer may have conducted the entire purchasinginteraction within a VR session where no previously registered paymentcards for the customer were registered with the VR computer 10. In afifth scenario, the customer may have payment card accessible as paymentwithin the VR session on a mobile device that is in the possession ofthe customer during the VR session. Each of these scenarios will now bediscussed in turn.

In the first scenario, where the customer transitions from an ecommercesite to a newly created VR session, can proceed as follows. Theout-of-band interface 18 obtains the ecommerce session token when thecustomer accesses an option to migrate from the out-of-band ecommercesession to a newly created VR session. The token includes the customeridentifier for the customer known to the ecommerce site and theecommerce session identifier for the ecommerce session that wasoccurring with the customer in the out-of-band session. This providesthe VR interface 12 with a link to the ecommerce session and detailsavailable in the account of the customer with the ecommerce site thoughinteraction between the VR interface 12 with the out-of-band interface18 bridge. The out-of-band interface 12 uses an API to access theecommerce session or ecommerce site. Such that when the customer, checksout of the VR session and desires to pay for a good or product, the VRinterface 12 interacts with the out-of-band interface 18, and theout-of-band interface 18 accesses the ecommerce site or existingecommerce session using the customer identifier and/or the sessionidentifier available in the token. Using the API of the ecommerce site,the out-of-band interface 18 accesses an account of the customer withthe ecommerce site and obtains the registered payment cards that havebeen registered by the customer with the ecommerce site. These paymentcards are passed back to the VR interface 12 during the VR session andpresented as options for selection to checkout to the customer withinthe VR room. The customer selects the payment card desired using theVR-input device 16 and the payment for the transaction concludes eitherthrough the payment gateway 20 or back through the out-of-band interface18 that is interacting with the ecommerce site for out-of-bandcommunications to conclude the transaction.

In an embodiment, the registered payment cards may be presented asreal-world payment cards within the VR room.

In the second scenario, the customer has no registered payment cardswith the ecommerce site but migrated from the site to the VR session forconcluding payment. Assuming the customer also has no previouslyregistered payment card with the VR computer 10, a new payment mechanismcan be registered by the customer prior to checking out and concludingpayment within the VR session. This can occur by presenting to thecustomer the necessary information for the customer to use the VR-inputdevice 16 to register a payment card. Alternative, if the VR-inputdevice 16 is equipped with a forward-facing camera, the customer canplace a desired payment card in view of the camera's field of view andan image of the payment card is captured. Optical Character Recognition(OCR) processing then takes place within the VR session and the paymentcard is registered. The customer may also select an option to have thenow-registered payment card back with the ecommerce from which thecustomer migrated. In this case, the out-of-band interface 18 uses itsAPI to interact with the ecommerce site or session using the customeridentifier and the session identifier and register the payment card withthe ecommerce site on behalf of the customer. The VR computer 10 thenpasses the newly acquired payment card details to the payment gateway 20for completing the customer transaction. Alternatively, the out-of-bandinterface 20 accesses the ecommerce out-of-band session and completesthe transaction with the ecommerce site.

In the third scenario, the VR session obtains a registered payment cardpreviously registered for the customer. If more than one payment card isavailable, the customer can select the desired card within the VR room.The VR computer 10 passes the payment details of the card to the paymentgateway 20, which interacts using an API with a conventional paymentgateway to conclude the customer's transaction and pay for any goods orservices that the customer had for the transaction.

In the fourth scenario, the processing proceeds in a similar mannerpresented above with respect to the second scenario. The only differencebeing that no newly identified payment card is registered with anecommerce site, since the customer never transitioned to the VR sessionfrom an existing ecommerce session.

In the fifth scenario, the customer may have no known payment cardregistered with an ecommerce site or with the VR computer 10. Thecommerce can also have migrated from an ecommerce site or originated forthe entire transaction within the VR session for the fifth scenario.Additionally, the fifth scenario is available as a presented optionwithin the VR room of the VR session even when other known registeredpayment cards for either the VR session or an ecommerce site are knownor discovered on behalf of the customer. The out-of-band interface 18sends a push notification to a mobile wallet application on thecustomer's mobile device, this initiates the payment card from themobile device for payment during the VR session. The customer feels andplaces a finger or thumb over the fingerprint reader and the mobilewallet verifies and sends the payment card details to the out-of-bandinterface 18. This is communicated through the VR interface 12 andpayment completed through the payment gateway 20. In another case, thephone may display the payment card details as a QR code and assuming theVR-input device 16 includes a forward facing camera, the customerpositions the QR code in front of the camera and the payment details areprovided for processing during the VR session.

With each of the scenarios a variety of authentication mechanism can beprocessed during the payment processing within the VR session and/or forpurposes of verifying the identity of the customer within the VRsession. For example, a virtual Personal Identification Number (PIN) padmay be displayed within the VR room where the customer uses the VR-inputdevice 16 to enter a multi-digit code (4-8 or 6-8). The VR-input device16 may be equipped with location services to verify that the customer isin a known physical location known to the VR computer 10 as beingassociated with customer. The customer's fingerprint reader on acustomer's mobile device (such as watch, phone, or tablet) can beaccessed and communicated whether valid or not through the out-of-bandinterface 18. A QR or barcode can be scanned from the display of theconsumer's mobile device using a forward-facing camera of the VR inputdevice 16, the customer can be asked to repeat a phrase and voicerecognition used for authenticating the customer, audible questions canbe asked during the VR session and the customer's audible answers usedto verify the customer, written questions and answers used, and others.It is also noted that the multiple forms of authentication can be usedof different types for purposes of authentication. The authenticationcan be used for authenticating the customer for an ecommerce sessiontransferred to the VR session, for payment confirmation, and othersituations.

In an embodiment, the ecommerce session is transferred from avoice-based interaction with an automated network-enabled voice device,such as Echo® and Google Home®, to the VR session. In an embodiment, theecommerce session is transferred from an automated messaging sessionthat utilizes automated chat bats to the VR session.

In each of the various embodiments presented above, the customer remainsin the VR session for completion of the payment processing to conclude atransaction for purchasing goods or products. It is noted that goods orproducts includes services that are being sold by a retailer.

These and other embodiments are now discussed with reference to theFIGS. 2-4.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a method 200 for VR transaction integration,according to an example embodiment. The software module(s) thatimplements the method 200 is referred to as a “VR transaction manager.”The VR transaction manager is implemented as executable instructionsprogrammed and residing within memory and/or a non-transitorycomputer-readable (processor-readable) storage medium and executed byone or more hardware processors of a hardware computing device. Theprocessors of the device that executes the VR transaction manager arespecifically configured and programmed to process the VR transactionmanager. The VR transaction manager has access to one or more networksduring its processing. The networks can be wired, wireless, or acombination of wired and wireless.

In an embodiment, the device that executes the VR transaction manager isa single device or set of devices that process in a cloud processingenvironment.

In an embodiment, the device that executes the VR transaction manager isa server.

In an embodiment, the VR transaction manager all or some combination ofthe VR interface 12, the VR software executing on the VR computer 10,the payment gateway 20, and/or the out-of-band interface 18.

At 210, the VR transaction manager obtains transaction information toconclude a transaction of a customer during a VR session. Thetransaction information can include a variety of information such astransaction details, including: identifiers for goods, products, orservices, price for each item purchased, retailer identifier selling theitem, a delivery or pickup address for a customer, a customeridentifier, and payment details for payment of the items in thetransaction.

According to an embodiment, at 211, the VR transaction manager acquiresthe transaction information from an existing out-of-band session of thecustomer that is dynamically transferred or lined to the VR session.That is, the customer, through a session outside of the VR session has asession with a retailer to purchase items transferred dynamically orlinked dynamically with the VR session.

In an embodiment of 211 and at 212, the VR transaction manager receivesa customer identifier for the customer and a session identifier for theout-of-band session and the VR transaction manager loads a VR room forthe VR session than includes an interface to the out-of-band session. Inan embodiment, this is achieved through the out-of-band interface 18.

In an embodiment, at 213, the VR transaction manager acquires thetransaction information from an out-of-band device of the customer. Forexample, the transaction information is obtained from a mobile phone ormobile tablet that is not associated with the VR session. The manners inwhich the transaction information is obtained from the out-of-banddevice were described above with reference to the FIG. 1.

In an embodiment of 213 and at 214, the VR transaction manager acquiresthe transaction information in response to a dynamically pushednotification sent by the VR transaction manager to automaticallyactivate a wallet application on the out-of-band device. This situationwas described above with reference to the FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, at 215, the VR transaction manager acquires thetransaction information from registered transaction information that isaccessible to the VR session. This is a situation where the transactioninformation was previously registered by the customer and that previousregistration

In an embodiment, at 216, the VR transaction manager interactivelyobtains the transaction information from the customer during the VRsession and within the VR room rendered for the VR session.

In an embodiment of 216 and at 217, the VR transaction manager activatesa camera on a VR input device of the customer to obtain an image of apayment card presented by the customer to the camera for obtaining thetransaction information. OCR processing is performed on the image torecognize the payment information.

In an embodiment of 216 and at 218, the VR transaction manager presentsinput fields within a VR room rendered for the VR room for receiving thetransaction information as inputted by the customer through a VR inputdevice operated by the customer during the VR session.

At 220, the VR transaction manager completes the transaction using thetransaction information during the VR session.

In an embodiment, at 221, the VR transaction manager presents a virtualrepresentation of a PIN pad within the VR room rendered for the VRsession for the customer to authenticate using a VR input device forusing the transaction information to complete the transaction.

In an embodiment, at 222, the VR transaction manager receivesconfirmation from an out-of-band device to the VR session that thecustomer has successfully authenticated for using the transactioninformation to complete the transaction.

According to an embodiment, at 223, the VR transaction manager receivesa physical location from the customer from a VR input device. Thephysical location is one of a plurality of registered locations for thecustomer. The VR transaction manager, then authorizes completion of thetransaction based on the physical location of the customer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of another method 300 for VR transactionintegration, according to an example embodiment. The software module(s)that implements the method 300 is referred to as a “VR integrationmanager.” The VR integration manager is implemented as executableinstructions programmed and residing within memory and/or anon-transitory computer-readable (processor-readable) storage medium andexecuted by one or more hardware processors of a hardware device. Theprocessors of the device that executes the VR integration manager arespecifically configured and programmed to process VR integrationmanager. The VR integration manager has access to one or more networksduring its processing. The networks can be wired, wireless, or acombination of wired and wireless.

In an embodiment, the device that executes the VR integration manager isa single device or set of devices that process in a cloud processingenvironment.

In an embodiment, the device that executes the VR integration manager isa server.

In an embodiment, the VR integration manager all or some combination ofthe VR interface 12, the VR software executing on the VR computer 10,the payment gateway 20, the out-of-band interface 18, and/or the method200.

At 310, the VR integration manager enders a VR room for a VR sessionwith a customer.

In an embodiment, at 311, the VR integration manager dynamically linksthe VR session to an out-of-band session that the customer has with anecommerce site. This session can be through a website, an automatedvoice-network enabled device, an automated messaging chat bot, and thelike.

According to an embodiment, at 312, the VR integration manager rendersat least one virtual object representing the at least one good orservice that the customer manipulates by operating a VR input devicewithin the VR room to insert the virtual object into a cart representedin the VR room for checkout.

At 320, the VR integration manager identifies an indication of acheckout for purchase of at least one good or service within the VR roomand during the VR session.

In an embodiment, at 321, the VR integration manager obtains the paymentdetails from one of: a profile of the customer accessible to the VRsession, an out-of-band device to the VR session that is operated by thecustomer, an out-of-band session with an ecommerce site associated withthe customer, and a customer input provided during the VR sessionthrough a VR input device operated by the customer.

According to an embodiment, at 322, the VR integration managerauthenticates the customer for the payment details by one or more of:out-of-band communications with the VR session with an out-of-banddevice, a customer-provided PIN, a QR code scanned by a camera of a VRinput device operated by the customer, voice provided answers toquestions presented to the customer during the VR session, text providedanswers to questions presented to the customer during the VR session,and a current physical location of the customer based on registeredlocations for the customer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of another system 400 for transaction integration,according to an example embodiment. The system 400 includes a variety ofhardware components and software components. The software components ofthe system 400 are programmed and reside within memory and/or anon-transitory computer-readable medium and execute on one or morehardware processors of a hardware device. The system 400 communicatesone or more networks, which can be wired, wireless, or a combination ofwired and wireless.

In an embodiment, the system 400 implements all or some combination ofthe processing discussed above with the FIGS. 1-3.

In an embodiment, the system 400 implements, inter alia, the processingdescribed above with the FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, the system 400 implements, inter alia, the method 200of the FIG. 2.

In an embodiment, the system 400 implements, inter alia, the method 300of the FIG. 3.

The system 400 includes a server 401 and the server including VRtransaction manager 402.

The VR transaction manager 402 is configured to: 1) execute on one ormore processors of the server 401, 2) obtain payment details for atransaction of a customer during a VR session within a VR room renderfor the VR session, and 3) complete the transaction with the paymentdetails from within the VR session.

In an embodiment, the VR transaction manager 402 is further configuredin 2) to authenticate the customer for processing the payment detailswithin the VR room and during the VR session.

In an embodiment, the VR transaction manager 402 is all or somecombination of: the VR interface 12, the VR software executing on the VRcomputer 10, the payment gateway 20, the out-of-band interface 18, themethod 200, the method 300, and/or some combination of these.

It should be appreciated that where software is described in aparticular form (such as a component or module) this is merely to aidunderstanding and is not intended to limit how software that implementsthose functions may be architected or structured. For example, modulesare illustrated as separate modules, but may be implemented ashomogenous code, as individual components, some, but not all of thesemodules may be combined, or the functions may be implemented in softwarestructured in any other convenient manner.

Furthermore, although the software modules are illustrated as executingon one piece of hardware, the software may be distributed over multipleprocessors or in any other convenient manner.

The above description is illustrative, and not restrictive. Many otherembodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe above description. The scope of embodiments should therefore bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

In the foregoing description of the embodiments, various features aregrouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting that the claimed embodiments have more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Description of the Embodiments, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate exemplary embodiment.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: interacting, by aprocessor of a device, with an out-of-band interface; obtaining, by theprocessor from the out-band interface, an ecommerce session tokenindicating that a customer accessed an option to migrate from anout-of-band ecommerce session associated with an ecommerce site to aVirtual Reality (VR) session, wherein the ecommerce session tokencomprising a customer identifier for the customer and an ecommercesession identifier for the ecommerce session; establishing, by theprocessor, the VR session, wherein the VR session comprises athree-dimensional (3D) Virtual Reality (VR) room, and wherein the 3D VRroom comprises a real-world depiction of a room having goods or productsvisible as virtual objects within the 3D VR room; obtaining, by theprocessor, transaction information associated with a transaction of thecustomer based on interactions with the virtual objects within the 3D VRRoom during the VR session with the virtual objects manipulated withinthe 3D VR Room and identifying selected goods or selected productswithin a cart depicted as a specific object within the 3D VR Room,wherein actual real-world goods or actual real-world productscorresponding to the selected goods or the selected products are storedin warehouses, wherein the selected goods or the selected products andthe cart are special virtual objects tracked within the 3D VR room butare not actually present within a physical environment of the customerduring the VR session, wherein the transaction information associatedwith the selected goods or the selected products that are located withinthe cart comprises identifiers for goods or products of the transaction,prices of the goods or the products, a retailer identifier for aretailer that is selling the goods or the products, and the customeridentifier; detecting, by the processor, activation of a payment optionpresented within the 3D VR room that was activated by the customerduring the VR session; obtaining, by the processor, payment cardsregistered to the customer at the ecommerce site using the customeridentifier and the out-of-band interface; presenting, by the processor,the payment cards for selection by the customer within the 3D VR roomduring the VR session; receiving, by the processor, a selected paymentcard from the customer that is selected through a VR input device by thecustomer during the VR session; and processing, by the processor, apayment for the transaction comprising the transaction informationthrough a payment gateway using the selected payment card and thetransaction information or through the out-of-band interface byinteracting with the ecommerce site using the customer identifier, theecommerce session identifier, the selected payment card, and thetransaction information.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining thetransaction information further includes activating a camera on the VRinput device and obtaining an image, associating the image with one ofthe identifiers for one of the specific goods or one of the specificproducts as a portion of the transaction information.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein obtaining the transaction information further includespresenting input fields within the 3D VR room and receiving anotherportion of the transaction information based on inputted data made bythe customer into the input fields through the VR input device duringthe VR session.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the paymentfurther includes presenting a virtual representation of a PersonalIdentification Number (PIN) pad within the 3D VR room, andauthenticating the customer based on a PIN that is inputted on the PINpad by the customer using the VR input device.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein processing the payment further includes receiving a confirmationfrom an out-of-band device to the VR session through the out-of-bandinterface that the customer has successfully authenticated for using thetransaction information to pay for the transaction.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein processing the payment further includes receiving aphysical location for the VR input device from the VR input device whileoperated by the customer, associating the physical location with one ofa plurality of registered locations that was registered for thecustomer, and authorizing the processing of the payment for transactionbased on the physical location of the VR input device being operated bythe customer.